Abstract [en]

The study addresses the field of design as a profession and examines the views on strategic management in a design project among nine selected graphic designers. The graphic designers who participate in the study are permanently employed at design companies in Stockholm. The study has a qualitative approach and the method is based on face-to-face interviews. We have chosen to examine this subject due to the opinion among professionals that strategic management in the design industry has increased during the last decades. There is a belief that strategic management in some cases are used too extensively as a way for design companies to make more money. Further, the study also investigates the ambiguity of the profession due to its unclear definition and the fact that the tasks of a graphic designer can differ widely. The study indicates that there is a consistent opinion among the respondents that strategic management in a design project plays an important role, both for the internal process and the fact that a client is involved. The study also shows that the opinions about how they work strategically deviates from each other. The opinons of the selected graphic designers indicate that their working processes are individual and that they may differ depending on the nature of the project and the design company. However, the respondents consider that they in most cases first develop a strategy which further leads to an idea rather than the opposite. The respondents further consider that they in most cases first develop a strategy which then leads to an idea rather than the opposite. The most common opinion among the respondents is that the expectations of the graphic designers ability to work strategically are higher in projects with less people involved. In these projects the graphic designer needs to take the role as both a designer and strategist. The study also indicates that the respondents consider that the width of the working tasks makes the profession hard to define.